brickclubfandomcom-20200213-history
1.2.5-Lovethefutureisthine
Brick!Club 1.2.5,1.2.6 MORE PEOPLE ARE TAGGING THEIR STUFF I AM GOING TO WEEP FOR JOY hello, new taggers! I don’t know you but I already like you there is nothing you can do to make me like you any less because you are here!! On that note, that’s probably how Myriel feels in 1.2.5. And that’s hard to do sometimes, especially when someone is acting as strangely as Valjean (I mean, after 19 years of unconventional social contact if any, you’re gonna act pretty strange, especially when you’re alienated in a society that you aren’t used to anymore in the first place). This scene might actually break my heart more than the following scene. I’m the type of person who is deathly afraid of getting their hopes up, and I sort of feel like Valjean feels similarly. And that’s why he is constantly trying to get any sort of negative emotion out of the bishop. His heart has been torn to shreds so much in his life that now he is being offered true kindness, he wants to push it away because it’s only going to hurt more when he does something to mess it up again. Onto 1.1.6, which opens with an odd narrative choice. Hugo decides to dedicate the first sentence of this chapter to the present action of Valjean waking up in the middle of the night. Then the narrator tells the entire life story of the man. I’m not sure why those two things couldn’t have been reversed, but whatever. (It would have been cool because it could have been like thoughts of his history had caused him to awaken because they made him uncomfortable. But I don’t want to say that I knew better than Hugo, so ignore me.) "…but altogether he was a dull, insignificant fellow, at least apparently." We don’t hear a lot about Valjean in his early life besides just being orphaned, overworked, starved, and very, very perpetually tired. But he wasn’t really dull, and we at least know that he later will end up being quite far from insignificant, so he had to have the beginnings of that since forever. I want to see examples of how undull and significant he was, though. Because the beginning of the book, until the incident that we will later see with a certain chimney- sweep, the novel seems to focus more on Valjean’s actions and actions done to him as opposed to his thoughts. I don’t like missing out on those, out of a personal interest in the guy, but also because we could probably see a more pronounced change in him later if we were exposed to his thought processes since the very very beginning. Alas. I have lots of comments in this chapter (and sort of the preceding chapters) that Valjean has always been, if not kind, then at least considerate. (the biggest one, of course, being the Thing With The Milk.) Even prison, I think, didn’t entirely beat the humanity out of him. (he is generally polite to everyone and doesn’t retaliate when wronged. I suppose this could be just out of a fear of the consequences were he to do those things, but I really want it to be because the human spirit is fundamentally good and cannot ever be entirely corrupted. But whatever, I guess we don’t really have enough examples to draw a conclusion.) I totally missed the thing about the poaching in my first three reads of this chapter. Quite a shame that it doesn’t really come back. Unless it does and I missed that too. UGH THAT QUOTE ABOUT THE SHIPWRECK GIVES ME CHILLS EVERY TIME. The “irreparable abandonment of a thinking being,” you guys. “IRREPARABLE ABANDONMENT.” Ugh. (Although I guess it isn’t totally irreparable, since Myriel doesn’t abandon him? It just takes a lot of work, and most people aren’t as lucky as Valjean. And even if your relationship with society is later reconciled, you’re still going to have at least a little pain from prison that I doubt will ever be able to totally be pushed away.) also gesturing to seven heads as he was chained. that is all. here, have the last little bit of heart I possess at this point. "…in London four robberies out of five have hunger as their immediate cause." As we read this, I assume that the majority of the modern audience goes "WELL FOCUS ON FIXING THAT THEN, INSTEAD OF SENTENCING PEOPLE WITH FAMILIES TO SUPPORT TO FIVE YEARS IN THE GALLEYS!!!" Well played, Hugo. and of course i hate seeing our baby broken so badly by the end of the chapter.